Career orientation and reorientation.
Drobot, Loredana ; Petrovici, Merima ; Rotaru, Ileana 等
1. INTRODUCTION
The personal development of each person is necessary in the
conditions of a flexible work market. The internal configuration of a
work market changes in connection to the demands imposed by different
professions, and the external configuration changes according to different professions.
The professional orientation activities based on a static
model--compatibility of a personal characteristics model with the
characteristics of a certain occupational domain--are no longer
correlated to the reality. Thus in professional orientation and
reorientation, the organizational counsellor will keep in mind the
education of young and adults in order to obtain independence and
flexibility in the following domains (Dessoche, 1986):
--personality knowledge;
--occupational information regarding the profession;
--taking decisions regarding a certain profession;
--development planning in the professions selected;
--identification of solving methods for problems that may appear
during the professional trajectory.
Career orientation in Romania has encountered a series of problems
of a conceptual nature--the orientation represented the peak for
specialized staff and was built parallel with the education process.
Because the professional orientation can be obtained only in specialized
centres, the human resources departments were not sufficient for the
sustaining of this process, the demand being too high.
In certain organizations, the human resources department also has
the role to counsel the employee in planning, developing and reorienting
his career. Ideally, each department of human resources must benefit
from a centre specialized in orientating and reorientating the
individual's career.
Nowadays, the organizational psychologists, where they exist,
exercise counselling attributions. But this role doesn't belong
only to the psychologist. Because career orientation and reorientation
is a domain found at the intersection of other domains: economic,
management, sociology, psychology, law etc., the person named to take
these attributions may be selected from the domains specified. Still,
the dominant activity is counselling and it is recommended that the
specialist obtain an initial training in psychology and sociology.
The problems in Romania can also be of a methodological nature--the
career orientation is taught in different stages: 5th grade stage, 8th
grade and 12th grade stage; during these stages, the students don't
have the necessary time or the decisional capacity to start an
orientation.
For an adult, professional orientation represents a true problem
and it is begun as a result of individual and social necessities, in
centres, organizations and institutions through proper financial
resources or through European investments. Such centres should
"pressure" the professional life by the construction and the
development of national identity.
2. INSTRUMENTS USED IN CAREER REORIENTATION
The instruments that can be used are the following ones:
a. The genograma--supposes the discovery of the professional
experiences genealogic tree of offspring, the representations and
missions that were given to them and the work values they received.
Through this method, the animator invites the subject to build
his/her genealogic tree. In order to use the tree, the reflection must
be centred on professional life, on work and on the representations
transmitted from one generation to another. The subject must write, for
each member of the family, the date of birth and of death (if the case),
the home town, the professions and other data (for example, 5
professional qualities). The subject is also asked to formulate messages
regarding work that may characterize the persons in the genealogic tree.
Finally the counsellor proposes the introduction of key words, a drawing
or a citation that symbolizes the work connection for each parental
line.
The genograma is a powerful emotional instrument and the counsellor
must be careful in using the information must be gathered in a
professional manner. He may formulate the following questions:
--What is the structure of the individual's social trajectory?
--Does individual have continuity in his work?
--Where does the individual stand in connection to the
parents' plans?
--What were the professional challenges for the anterior generations?
--What familial patrimony has the subject inherited?
b. The biograma. The Henri Dessoche grill and the rational
autobiography is a useful painting in observing the connection made
between formal and non formal studies, between social and professional
activities, on a chronological scale (Dessoche, 1975)
We observe that in order to realize the past activities analyses,
to observe competencies, we may use the explaining of experiences and
the instruments that help creativity. Due to creativity instruments the
subject will have the advantage of projecting in the future, in a dream.
These kinds of exercises represent stimulation exercises, and the
instruments used in this case may be the following: the description of
the ideal professions, the hero of professional life and imagery.
Spranger has classified the individuals in five types of
preponderant values:
--theoretical, with references to knowledge, research;
--esthetical, with references to art, culture;
--domination, referring to influence, power;
--altruist, with references to he assistance given to another;
--practical, referring to the methods and techniques used (Husson,
1985).
Holland has identified six types of personal inventory: the
realistic type, intellectual (orientated towards research, study,
experiments), artistic (centred on emotions, intuition, originality,
expressing of feelings), social (the helping, care and assistance
relations), entrepreneur and conventional (Drobot, 2008).
The values auto-exploration exercises follow the observing of
preferences and choices made on a professional plan. Here we can observe
questions like:
--Can you enumerate the extra-professional qualities that make your
family and your friends appreciate you?
--Which extra-professional qualities do you frequently use?
--Which are the qualities you may transfer to the professional
sector?
Other questions may address the practical profession and the
managerial function:
--Which are the activities that you prefer?
--Which are your routine activities?
--Which are your personal qualities used at work?
--Which are the difficulties met? etc.
c. Projects correspond to the confrontation among desire and
reality, history, will, individual possibilities and possibilities
offered by the social and economic context. The reality allows the
re-adaptation of the project according to the possibilities of the
subject, to the desires invested and to the motivation degree. This
elaboration phase needs to be studied and compared with other methods.
Collaborators from outside the school can also be involved by offering
their help in this case.
The project represents the individual's projection of the
future and through it the subject can observe his/her proper style,
according to which he manages his/her career.
The balance counsellor helps the subject to observe the
authenticity of the project, his intentions, choices and fantasies,
which do not have any connection to the subject's competencies and
history. The balance counsellor analyses the project according to two
axes (L'Hotellier, 2008):
--the authenticity and the validity of the project by reporting it
to the individual;
--the project is also possible in the social and economic frame of
the subject.
The counsellor can not be an expert on all projects, but he must
favour the approaches that allow the subject to connect to the reality.
In order to facilitate the project, its sharing will be proposed, in
several stages, through an action plan and a detailed schedule or by
realizing a graphic plan of his intentions.
The project finds its origin in the motivation and in the will of
the person, but neither the impulse not the desire are enough for the
realization of the project. In fact the project allows the evaluation of
permanent developing of the subject, of his self identity contained by
the temporal development
As a conclusion of the article we will offer an exploration guide
for the validation of a project. The following questions may be asked in
order to formulate a future project of the subject. The questions are
formulated according to different domains or area of every day life.
The environment as a life area is discovered by using the following
questions:
--Which are the events, the persons and the facts that gave you the
idea for a new project?
--Which are the events, the persons, and the fact that made you
continue this project?
--Who did you first talk about your intention?
--Which are project objectives that will lead to its positive
results?
The answers may be: a greater interest for work, personal
reconnaissance, the need for a change, the desire to realize a dream,
the desire to choose her/his destiny, the taste of risk etc.
--Which values and personal gestures will be included in the
project?
--What personality treats will be necessary?
--Which qualities will help and which won't?
--What could stop the project to succeed?
--How do you see the project in 3, 5 or 10 years?
Another domain that needs to be studied in a project is represented
by the family life of the subject. The following type of questions may
be used:
--What is you family's position towards the project?
--May the project modify the family equilibrium?
--Does the project create a connection or a breaking in the values
recognized?
--Is you family affected by the project and in which manner?
The existence of a network is another helpful domain in the
realization of a project. Here are some examples of questions that can
be used in this case:
--Do you have colleagues, relations, friends that can help you?
--Is the project individual or do you wish to apply it together
with a friend?
--What are the elements that ensure the success?
3. CONCLUSIONS
The introduction of a Balance Counsellor in Romanian schools
represents a novelty, but the problem would be the specialization of
this person, even if he/she can be recruited from the psycho-sociology
specialists. The individual seances or the groups' ones may
represent a self knowledge possibility and the preparation programmes
can be a success when they are based on the proper professional
development needs of the subjects.
In this article we have tried to propose some possible instruments
that can be used in career orientation or reorientation.
4. REFERENCES
Dessoche, H. (1975). La societe festive (The festive society),
Editions du Seuil, Paris
Dessoche, H. (1986). Autobiografie raisonne et maieutique de
projets (Reason authobiography of projects) in, Histoires de vie, Tome
II, G. Pineau, G. Jobert, Editions L'Harmattan, Paris
Drobot, L. (2008). Pedagogie sociala (Social pedagogy), EDP Publishing House, ISBN: 978 973 30 2057, Bucharest
Husson, A. (1985). L'orentation professionalle continue.
Developpement et emploi, (Continuous professional orientation.
Development and use), FNEGE, Paris
L'Hotellier, A. (2008). Le travail methodique de project (The
methodical use of the project), revue Education permanente, no. 86
Tab. 1. The elements of the biograma
Years Professional Professional Social Events that
development experiences experiences have
marked the
private life
Total no.